Sales of the Independent's cut-price spinoff i are thought to have dropped to close to an average daily sale of 70,000 since launch, with no official circulation figures expected to be revealed until next year.

Alexander Lebedev's 20p weekday daily launched on 26 October with a flurry of media coverage helping to drive paid-for sales of about 180,000, according to several sources.

However, it is understood that sales have steadily fallen, although the rate of decline appears to be slowing.

In the third week after launch, the week commencing 8 November, average daily sales ranged from about 75,000 to 85,000; by the end of last week average daily sales appeared to be hovering close to 70,000 to 73,000, according to industry sources.

It is still early days for the paper and natural fluctuations in sales will be exacerbated by the Christmas holiday in December, when all national titles tend to see a seasonal dip.

"December is a difficult month for circulation as people's habits change a lot and that impacts sales," said one media buying executive.

"People spend more time doing activities such as shopping and there is more time off work. The daily routine is thrown out and that always affects the numbers."

However, he added that the timing of the launch "gives them the chance to test out and refine the distribution model so when they go into the new year they have it right ... it is not necessarily a bad time to have tried this as there was always going to be a tricky period after launch anyway."

A number of media buying agency sources expected to see the first officially audited figures for the paper released on 10 December, when the Audit Bureau of Circulation publishes the November circulation figures for national newspapers.

But it is understood that the publisher intends to wait until January until a clearer picture of sales trends is known. The i has been registered for official auditing, but it is up to the publisher to decide when to start the monthly publication of figures.

The Independent's circulation figures for November are thought to have suffered from some reader cannibalisation, but not as badly as some insiders feared.

Media buying agencies, which book advertising on behalf of their advertiser clients, are not being charged extra for ads booked in the Independent to also appear in the i. When circulation figures for the i are published, the Independent's sales team will look to increase revenue by selling across both titles.

"If they don't [publish an ABC figure next month] they will have a bit of a job getting agencies to pay for [ads in i]," said one media buying agency executive. "The general perception will be that the numbers are not as good as they had hoped. At the moment agencies aren't paying [extra] for ads to appear in i. If they want to start selling as a joint package [across the Indy and i] we will want to know what those numbers are."

The Independent did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

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